


More Like CheMYSTERY Because We Have No Idea What We're Doing

by buzzoff (orphan_account)



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Cuddles, Eventual Fluff, First Homestuck fic, Humanstuck, M/M, Projects, Short Chapters, Sleep Deprivation, Sleepy babies, all nighters, but it'll come, gets real shippy towards the end, kind school AU but not really, they're partners for an assignment, you won't even see the fluff coming, ♠️ to ❤️
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-15 17:21:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 9,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5793319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/buzzoff
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eridan and Sollux are paired up for a school project and would've had it done AGES ago, but other things popped up. Now, on the night before it's due, they're forced to pull an all nighter to finish it. </p><p>Eridan ruins everything at least once.</p><p>Edited on 11/26/16: Things make more sense now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> man this idea would not leave me ALONE

At 6:30pm, Sollux Captor was already fed up with his dumb ass lab partner. In fact, he wasn't even sure why he invited that douche over in the first place as he was clearly going to be doing all the work by himself anyway. The annoyed gemini huffed a sigh, eyebrows raising and lips pursing into his "oh my god you have got to be fucking kidding me" face, which he aimed pointedly at the previously mentioned lab partner, who was too busy gazing out of a glass pane to be bothered with trivial things like 60% of a final Chemistry grade. Sollux glanced at his watch. Eridan had only been over for seven minutes. This was going to be an absolute nightmare.  
"Hey, Sol, did the weatherman say anything about snow this mornin'?" Eridan didn't even glance away from the window when he asked this. Un-fucking-believable.  
"Probably not." Sollux replied dryly as he began to rummage through his backpack to find his project outline in the mess of crumpled and torn loose leaf papers.. He didn't watch the fucking news, how was he supposed to know the daily forecast? He wasn't. He was supposed to to know where the project papers were. He didn't know that either.  
"Are you sure? I think I overheard Karkat say somethin' about snow and ice in third period."  
"Then probably so." The tinge of annoyment was evident in Sollux's voice as his tolerance for such a dumb conversation quickly deteriorated. He pulled paper after paper out of his goddamn bookbag and inspected them briefly before slamming them down onto the pile of all the other papers that were also not the right paper. This process continued on for a few more minutes before Eridan turned his attention away from the window and towards the commotion the other boy was making.  
"Uh, Sollux, what the fuck are you doing?" he asked, taking two strides toward the gemini and plopping down on the hideous beige carpet across from him. At this point, Captor's papers were strewn so haphazardly a logical assumption would be that his bookbag ate something bad for lunch and threw up all contents of its stomach while attempting a very complicated break dance number.  
"Looking for that fucking outline sheet," He explained, picking up his pack from underneath and flipping it upside down, letting the remaining papers, long forgotten inkless pens, and crumpled sticky notes cascade out like some scene from a boring office secretary's wet dream. "Where the fuck did I put that thing?!" Sollux was sifting through the hills of notebook paper like a pirate searching for buried treasure as Eridan quietly retrieved his own bag. Ampora calmly unzipped it and pulled out a bright purple folder that was marked "CHEMISTRY" in thick ink and pulled out the outline sheet. He then closed the folder and returned it to its rightful place- between his AP US History and Geometry folders. "Sol?" Eridan said to get the honey-haired boy's attention. "I have the sheet." he added, holding up the paper. Sollux looked up and stared for a moment.  
"You had your outline this whole time and let me pour out my whole backpack onto the fucking floor to find mine. Nice. Real nice, Eridan." Captor exhaled heavily through his nose and started shoveling papers back into the black hole that is his book bag. The papers would scream in terror but they don't have mouths and are therefore incapable.  
"Hey, it's not like you told me you were lookin' for it before you went and dumped your papers everywhere. Common sense would'a told you to ask if your partner had it before doin' some dumb shit like that." The freckle-faced boy retorted, making no move to help Sollux clean up his catastrophic mess. "Besides, it's hardly my fault that you can't keep your documents in order." he began reading over the paper in his hand, skimming through it a few times while his unorganized partner got his shit together.  
"Whatever ED, you could've given me a fucking heads up," Sollux defended, his lisp also defended him, though in an abstract way in a far away universe where the characteristics of your voice protected you from harm that both Eridan and Sollux were unaware of. "But that's over now so could we just get on with this damn project so we can get it over with and you can go home?" That might have been too harsh, but since when does lispy boy care about being too harsh?  
"Fine with me." Eridan agreed, glaring at lispy boy momentarily before holding his outline sheet up higher and clearing his voice. "Students are to choose one of the two following mediums to present their findings: A poster or Microsoft Powerpoint/Google Slides presentation." he quoted from the sheet. "The previously mentioned findings you are meant to present can be found in your lab notes from December 12th to January 14th." Sollux nodded at that, glancing over to his bag that was currently in shambles. He almost shuddered at the thought of searching through it for notes he probably lost.  
"You have the lab notes, right?" The gemini asked, furrowing his eyebrows.  
"Of fuckin' course I do. Who could possibly lose such crucial notes?" Eridan shook his head to insinuate that this was the most incredulous accusation of the decade. When Sollux didn't respond to that, he knew that was exactly what his partner did. Where would this boy even be without him? Probably dead, he decides as he pulls out his purple folder again and hands Sollux the papers. "You're welcome."  
Sollux did not say thank you, and instead got to work.


	2. Chapter 2

At 8:00, shit was actually getting done. The project required three things; 1) A presentation in poster or powerpoint form, 2) Accurate information, and 3) 30 pictures that explain the topic. Eridan called working on the pictures immediately as he read it out loud, this was around 6:30. His sound reasoning being "Hey, I brought the notes AND the outline, I call the easy part. Plus you'd probably enjoy makin' the powerpoint." Sollux didn't argue, as he didn't think Eridan could handle the responsibility of making the powerpoint look good going off the way he dressed. So now, at 8pm, Sollux was lounged in his spinny chair at his makeshift desk (which consisted of four textbooks stacked onto one impressively strong cardboard box) and translating all of his partner's notes to the screen in front of him. This usually wouldn't take so long if Eridan wasn't so fucking annoying.

While the Aquarius wasn't currently being inherently annoying like he usually is, in fact, he was completely silent aside from the occasional hum or mumble to himself, his notes were annoying enough to make up for this rare almost-silence. Sollux wondered how such beautiful and wispy handwriting could be so completely butchered like this. The Chemistry notes of Eridan Ampora were annoying enough to drive a man insane. Sollux could hardly read anything that was written considering the douchebag thought it would be cool or something to add extra v's and w's FUCKING EVERYWHERE. Many a times Sollux would be typing in a bullet point exactly how Eridan had written it, making things say things like "Bee stins are acidic wwhile wwasp stings are alkaline." and obviously, that's not a fucking sentence. So Captor would have to meticulously inspect each sentence before moving on. "Okay, stins isn't a word," He'd think to himself, "Maybe he meant stains? Bee stains are acidic? No, that's dumb. That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Bee... hmm, maybe stings? Bee stings are acidic. Yeah, that makes sense." He'd conclude silently and fix the error. Then he had to delete w's and v's, which wasn't hard work, but was still really fucking annoying. 

Aside from the horrendous monstrosity of the way Eridan wrote words, there was the doodling. Oh God, the doodling. The margins were so far covered in the cartoonish depictions they could barely be called margins anymore. Seahorses, stars, wands, cubes, Sollux's name, more seahorses, bubbles, and an ungodly amount of pointless spirals EVERYWHERE. So when you finally pioneered through sentence prior, you had to now fist fight scribbles and squares from the new sentence. 

Actually, at this point in time, Sollux was super frustrated trying to find out what the last word of fact #21 was. He spent probably two minutes trying to find out what it was. "Soluble? No. Solution? No. Saturated? Still no." Now the Gemini was running out of "S" words to fit there. He sighed heavily and glanced behind him, where Eridan was laying on his stomach, knees bent with headphones in his ears, totally immersed in his laptop screen. The Ampora would occasionally furrow his eyebrow at the screen or tilt his head a little, Sollux noticed that this made stray hair fall into his bright hazel eyes, causing the Aquarius to lift his hand and push incredibly slender fingers through his light auburn hair to put the hair back in place. Sollux also noticed that the corner of Eridan's mouth would sometimes tip up a millimeter and his eyes would soften for a moment, Captor guessed that he saw a cheesy chemistry pun like the ones he has written sometimes in his notes. The Gemini also observed how every few minutes or so his partner would exhale softly and close his eyes, seizing his scroll through Google Images for a quick moment of concentration or relaxation or the chorus of the song or whatever he was looking so damn peaceful for. This time when Eridan re-opened his eyes, they shot quickly to the left, aimed directly at Sollux, whose heart rate shot through the roof.

"Why the fuck are you starin at me?" The Ampora turned away from his laptop to look Sollux dead on. He also removed one earbud.  
"Um, what? No, uh, I wasn't staring at you." Sollux creased his eyebrows and shook his head like this was the most ludicrous accusation of the century as the blood started rushing to his face, giving him a nice and embarrassing light blush.  
"Yeah you were! You were totally just starin at me like a few seconds ago." How did the words come so easily from Eridan's lips when Sollux was having a hard time forming a single comprehensible word?   
"No! I definitely was not! I was just, uh, trying to ask you something! I said your name but you didn't answer! You opened your eyes at the time I was glancing over to see if you were asleep." There was literal hell fire in his face, he was sure of it. This is definitely the way he'd die, he decided. Death by embarrassment, what an awful way to go.   
Shockingly enough, Eridan let it go with an eye roll and a quietly said "Whatever." Secretly, he was flattered, though Sollux would never know that. "What were you gonna ask me, anyway?" He asked, noting the now very apparent blush in his partner's face. What a dork.   
"Oh, uh, your notes." Sollux unceremoniously thrusted the loose-leaf paper at Eridan. 'Fact number twenty one, I can't read what it says." He cleared his throat a bit, letting the pink tint eventually simmer down.   
The Aquarius took the paper and skimmed it quickly, quirking an eyebrow up at Sollux as he read it. "It says "a substance capable of reactin with an acid to form a salt is referred to as salifiable." He quoted. "What do you not understand?"   
"I understand it just fine." The Captor scoffed. He was lying. He hardly ever paid attention in chemistry, he had more important things on his mind. Like how many macaroni and cheese cups he could buy at one time without the cashier thinking he's weird. "I only asked you because I could hardly read it with your dumb w's and v's and drawings everywhere." He huffed a little, taking the notes back.   
"Whatever, Sol. Just focus more on the powerpoint and less on starin at me." With that, Eridan put his earbud back in his ear and turned his attention back to his laptop.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know usually I post every other weekend but I was really excited about this chapter so here you go.

At 10pm, Sollux is on the beautiful holy ground that is the last slide of a really boring powerpoint presentation, and he probably couldn't be more relived. 

Eridan was at a similar standing point, as he was already done collecting pictures. He was now wasting time counting the dweeb-y posters, drawings, and sticky notes on the wall until Sollux was done.   
Sollux would be done in five minutes, which, in Ampora time, translates to six years, four months, and three days. So far he counted 43 things on the wall. This was going to take forever. 

at 10:05pm, Sollux was FINALLY done with the powerpoint. Now Sollux had the job of transferring all the pictures from his partner's computer to his own via flash drive. Meanwhile, Eridan had to skim through the powerpoint to make sure the previously mentioned boy didn't translate his notes wrong. So far he'd found two mistakes and made it a point to rewrite them in one point larger font so mr.honey hair would have to go back and fix it. 10 points to Slytherin.   
"Okay, everything's finished. I can transfer it now." Sollux spoke up, taking his red flash drive from the computer. He sighed and stood up with a stretch, making his way to behind where Eridan sat.   
"No, I'm not done correcting it."   
"What? How long does it take to skim through a powerpoint that's comprised entirely of notes that you originally wrote?"   
"Maybe don't make so many mistakes next time and this would already be done." Eridan quipped, now purposely taking his sweet time on each sentence.   
Sollux just rolled his eyes and set his flash drive down on the desk. "Whatever. I'm going to get something to drink." With that he left the room and started his trying journey toward the kitchen. It was a trying journey because Mituna left pieces of the intricate Lego spaceship he was building all over the living room floor, and hell if Sollux wanted to step on one of those little bastards.   
In about 10 minutes, Sollux finally made it to the kitchen, the spiders in the walls cheering him for his immense valor.   
While Captor was pouring himself a cup of fruit punch flavored soda, he glances at the clock above the kitchen table and notes that it's 10:30. He wonders briefly if Eridan's sleazebag of an older brother would actually make the trip to pick him up this late or if he'd just end up staying over. The latter made him smile a little.  
"FUCK! NO! STOP!" Eridan erupted from down the hall, a chair toppling over could also be heard as Sollux snapped out of his thoughts abruptly. He also spilled fruit punch flavored soda down the front of his shirt.   
The soda-covered boy quickly put down the two liter he was holding and rushed back to his bedroom to see what happened. He pretty much flung the door off it's hinges when he arrived, scanning the room for chaos. None was evident aside from his lab partner's face of complete horror, aimed at Sollux's laptop that was still at the makeshift desk. Eridan, however, was not at the makeshift desk. Eridan was in the middle of the room, about a foot back from the computer, the chair he used to be in was upside down and behind him.   
"What the fuck happened?!" Sollux asked, walking further into his room. He followed Eridan's line of sight and soon shared his look of horror. His laptop.   
Sollux Captor didn't love many things. Of course he liked tons of things, but it was rare that he found something he loved. His laptop was among one of the few things. This class was shared with other important things like cheese pizza on Friday nights and taking the plastic off of new electronics. Which is to say, if Eridan Ampora did anything to harm his most prized possession, he'd definitely be sorry.   
Eridan Ampora didn't hurt his partner's computer, in fact, he only harmed a file on the computer. Though Eridan couldn't express this, as he was in total shock.   
Sollux practically ran to his laptop, scooping it up into his arms. He was careful to make sure his computer didn't touch the still-wet soda stain on his T-Shirt as he scanned for any scratches or imperfections that weren't there previously. After three solid minutes of inspecting the screen and keyboard, he couldn't find anything. Though, while looking, he didn't register the fact that the screen was displaying his background instead of the powerpoint he worked on for close to three hours.   
By now Eridan was snapped out of it, but if anything he was more scared than before.   
Sollux looked up at his partner's horrified freckled face. Usually, in the back of his mind somewhere, Sollux would note that freckles were cute sometimes. Though, this comment couldn't have been thought about Eridan. Of course not. It would usually just a general admiration for freckles, that's all. But this wasn't usually, so he made no such note.   
"What happened?" Sollux furrowed his eyebrows. He had already crossed out the possibility that his laptop was hurt. Was Eridan hurt? He scanned over his partner's figure. He didn't seem hurt, the taller boy was just standing in the middle of Sollux's bedroom, one ankle crossed in front of the other, chewing at his lip as he fidgeted with his fingernails. There was no blood anywhere, so Sollux concluded that Eridan wasn't hurt. What other possibility could there be? Eridan was just correcting the project in here, alone and completely sa-  
Wait, the fucking project.  
Sollux whipped his head around to his laptop screen. He notices then that his background is being displayed. Not the 60%-of-our-grade-defining powerpoint. He raised his eyes to Eridan, who was already apologizing, which was a rare thing for an Ampora to do.   
"-didn't mean to! You were takin' too long so I took it upon myself to import the dumb pictures." He explained, talking way too quickly. "But then there was a pop up, so I clicked out of it, but then there was an "are you fuckin' sure?" pop up that appeared at the upper right corner and I double-clicked the exit button but then it closed on the first click but the second click was already done so there was really nothin' I could do at that point but watch the powerpoint get closed out to." His voice stopped abruptly as it started.   
Sollux looked at Eridan like he was the biggest idiot on the planet for about three seconds before he turned away from his partner and put his laptop back down. He re-opened Microsoft and created a blank presentation. He then turned back to Eridan.   
"Since you fucked it up, you're redoing it." was all Sollux said before leaving the room. When he was out of the room, but still in earshot, he said "I'm taking a shower. You made me spill soda on myself." His sentence was punctuated with the slamming of a bathroom door.


	4. Chapter 4

At 11:30pm, Sollux Captor stood in the bathroom he shared with Mituna, towel around his waist. Tiny water drops committed suicide periodically, dropping from the teen body and splattering onto the checkered yellow and white tiled floor, never to be seen again.  
Sollux had just recently turned off the water and was now, more or less, in the process of drying off. You know those people who get out of the pool or shower or what have you and immediately put their T-Shirt on without even attempting to dry off? Sollux Captor is unfortunately one of those people, so he did exactly that in 120 seconds. Sollux Captor was also the type of person who timed mundane tasks they do everyday via counting by the second in their head.  
As the Gemini left the grave site for those unfortunate water droplets and made his way to his bedroom, he was non-committedly tossing his honey hair under a blue towel as to dry it, even though his hair pretty much stayed in it's original, damp state. As he arrived at his bedroom and stepped inside, he dropped his used towel onto his dresser that had been conveniently placed by the entryway years before. I mean, what else would he have done with his towel? Turned it into a dress? No, he would not turn his towel into a dress; Sollux was not the type of person that knew how to sew. His chemistry partner, however, was that type of person.  
Speaking of Eridan, Sollux had hoped all throughout his shower that his partner was done with their project so Eridan could leave and Sollux could go the fuck to sleep. But, upon seeing the Ampora, Sollux knew his hope had gone to waste.  
Eridan was still at the makeshift desk of cardboard boxes and textbooks, typing. Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly, typing. Eridan was typing as if each key he pressed caused him immense pain so naturally he avoided pressing them for as long as possible. Sollux could infer that his partner was exhausted, not only by his graveyard manner of typing, but also for his graveyard manner of looking.  
Sollux never really thought the Aquarius to be extraordinarily beautiful or breathtakingly handsome guy, but he had to admit he wasn't "tear-my-eyes-out-for-I-have-been-blinded-by-this-foul-beast" hideous. In fact, Sollux thought Eridan to be a moderately attractive teen until he opened his mouth. But right then, Eridan looked like he had recently escaped from the local morgue to devour some human flesh after being legally pronounced dead. The usually bright-hazel-eyed teen had droopy bags under his glassy eyes and his mouth had fallen a centimeter open, his top teeth resting on his bottom lip as he tried to keep himself focused on the task at hand residing in the blindingly-bright laptop screen. His current state might seem as an oddity for it only being 11:45pm, but keep in mind this kid is a fucking nerd who goes to bed at 11pm sharp if it's a weekend and he's feeling adventurous.  
Even without the somewhat invasive knowledge of Eridan's sleep patterns that you now possess, Sollux felt a tinge of pity for the teen. Now, don't mistake this pity for him actually caring about Eridan's well being or anything, it was clearly nothing like that. Pfft, that you would even imply that is laughable! Haha! As if! Sollux simply knew that his tired partner wouldn't get anything done with his slow typing! This was obviously just Sollux taking care of his grade and in no way, shape, or form him looking out for Eridan. Pfft, yeah right. As if. You wish. You're being so defensive, calm down, would you? Stop asking about it, jeez.  
Besides, Eridan was already on slide 21 of 30. Sollux could easily clear the last few slides in 15 minutes and then hop off to Sleeptown, population: him. But, then again, Eridan was the one who ruined everything in the first place; nine slides or not, that's still nine slides Sollux shouldn't be responsible for. In a way, Captor kinda guessed that Eridan deserved the exhaustion for making him spill soda all over himself and one of his two favorite T-Shirts. Although, the Aquarius didn't really mean to delete everything, everyone makes mist-  
The internal conflicting arguments seized as they were interrupted by the sound of soft snoring. Eridan had fallen asleep, cheek pressed against the area beside the mousepad and glasses off-kilter, left lens shifted to the bridge of his nose.  
Sollux sighed, obviously Eridan couldn't finish the project while sleeping. There was a light tapping on Eridan's shoulder, preceded by a shove when there was no reaction to the former. "C'mon ED, go call Cronus. Get off my laptop." Sollux crossed his arms loosely as the newly-awakened hipster looked up and blinked his golden-brown eyes that shined confusion. A couple seconds later, Eridan was aware of his surroundings again and weakly stood, patting himself to locate his cell phone. Sollux let him find out on his own that his purple-cased phone was still on the textbook desk, left of Sollux's laptop. Eridan fumbled with his password for a moment or two before gaining access.  
Eridan took a few sidesteps to the left to put some more space between him and the Gemini, mostly because he didn't want his partner to hear whatever Cronus would say when he heard he was still at the Captor house this late.  
The younger Ampora dialed his brother's number and waited. It rang four times and went to voicemail. Eridan called again and got the same response, or rather, lack thereof. The sleep-deprived tried calling a third time, but this time it went straight to voicemail. Obviously his douchebag brother was awake and ignoring him. "Prick." Eridan mumbled, sliding his phone into his back pocket. He looked up at Sollux who was already content with typing up a storm. Eridan took a step closer and gave a half-hearted attempt at clearing his throat to get the Gemini's attention, which, being completely honest, was usually where Sollux's attention was anyway.  
Sollux looked up quickly, knocking honey strands behind his glasses and in front of his right blue eye and left brown eye. Eridan, in his fuzzy-minded state, faltered for a moment and simply admired his partner's mitchmatched eyes for a moment longer than socially acceptable. One was light brown and the other shone crystallite. Eridan tried to draw them once or twice but failed to capture the awe they casted. Sollux, naturally, tilted his head and gave him a weird look. "Eridan? What did you want?"  
The aforementioned teen went a little wide eyed and got himself back on track. "Oh, uh, right." Eridan nodded. "Cro won't come pick me up, do you mind?" he asked, flicking his head in the general direction of Sollux's bunk bed.  
Or, at least, that's what Eridan thought he said. In reality, the sentence was slurred and mumbled on his tired lips; it sounded like syrup and Sollux didn't understand a word. In fact, the only thing he retained from whatever his partner said was that he asked a question. Mr.honey hair looked up at his droopy-eyed partner once more before he just decided to agree with him for the sake of getting him out of his hair. “Sure, ED. Do whatever.”  
Eridan nodded slightly in gratitude and walked off, making his way to the bed as he muttered a quick thank you.  
Sollux was already back to typing again by the time his partner collapsed onto his bottom bunk, which, to be fair, was the only bunk without controllers and video games littering it.  
At 12:15am, Eridan Ampora fell asleep peacefully, holding Sollux Captor’s pillow in his arms.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tune in next time for Sollux and Eridan being too sleepy to filter their gay!


	5. Chapter 5

At 12:32am, a file was saved to a flash drive- but we both know it's not that simple, because things never really are. Oh no, this particular file was a blessed file, comprised solely of the sweet nectar of the gods and beautiful angelic hymns. This file, under the eloquent name of "chem project Sollux and eridan.ppt", was a beautiful wave of relief crashing over sleep deprived student Sollux Captor as his shaky hands removed his prized red flash drive and deposited it directly into Eridan's backpack, since he would probably lose it in his.  
There might have been a few tears.  
Sollux saved the file to his computer hard drive just in case, and finally closed the goddamn thing, once and for all in this charade of fuckery. He heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair, bloodshot eyes squeezing shut for a moment as he stood and stretched his arms high above, every bone in his body cracking as he arched his back and straightened up again. "Jesus fucking Christ," he mumbled to himself, sleepy voice mingling with a yawn as he looked around the room. He wondered briefly when exactly Eridan left, not fully connecting the dots as he failed to question why the Ampora's bag was still there beside his desk and what the lump in his bed was.  
The question was brushed off, therefore delaying Sollux's epiphany, as another powerful yawn forced itself from the lispy boy's mouth, further notifying him that he needed to go the fuck to sleep. At this point, Captor was in no place to argue and made a conscious decision to go to bed.  
There were three almost accidents as Sollux made his way to his bed, one involving an almost collision with a dresser and two involving awkwardly stumbling over his own legs, causing him to lose his balance. Thankfully, he was able to regain balance in just the right time... all three consecutive times. He now stood at the foot of his bunk bed, working the socks off his feet before he readied himself to find his place between the sheets. Oh how sweet it will be to finally lay down and rest after that prolonged trainwreck, Sollux was practically drooling at the thought as he ridded himself of his socks all the way, leaving them behind as he jumped into his personal Nirvana.  
But then, he hit something hard. That something hard then proceeded to flip the fuck out, lashing and flailing this way and that, trying to get whatever mercilessly pounced on him off, no matter what the consequences.  
"Ah! What the fuck?!" Sollux fumed as he was literally kicked out of his Nirvana, landing belly up on the floor, which we all know is the worst way to land. He regained quickly, though, considering how quickly he sprung off the ground and swung at whatever was in his bed, colliding with a satisfying pain in his knuckles.  
"Wha- STOP! Sol! Quit!" The lump spoke, scooting further away from Sollux. "Ow! That fuckin' hurt, you dick!" The lump then shed it's outer layer of blankets, revealing a very disheveled Eridan Ampora with a split lip.  
Confusion was evident in Sollux's face as looked at his partner, clearly taken aback. "E-eridan? What are you doing here?! I thought Cronus picked you up."  
"No, Sol, he obviously didn't." the Ampora scoffed. "I told you that he wouldn't come get me before I went to sleep, which you said was fine." When Sollux doesn't respond, a sigh is heaved from his partner. "Do you ever fuckin' listen t' anything I say? I swear, it's always in one ear an' out the other with you." Eridan rolled his eyes and untangled himself from the Gemini's sheets. "I need somethin' for this." He said as he pointed at the swell to his bottom lip, obviously pissed off.  
"Right, I, uh, bathroom." Sollux abruptly turned and walked across the hall to his bathroom, grabbing some neosporin and gauze from the medicine cabinet. "Will this work?" He asked from the doorway, holding out the items out at arms length.  
Eridan applied some ointment to the cut but skipped out on the gauze, assuming he'd be fine without it. As he did this, Sollux apologized and Eridan momentarily brushed it off, mostly because he was preoccupied thinking of ways to cover it up for school, which was only a few hours away. "It's probably not even as bad as you think it is. Here, let me see," Sollux promoted, stepping closer towards Eridan, who was just scowling. The aquarius set down the neosporin he was holding and wiped it off of his bottom lip. "Here, look all you want, I'm sure everyone'll be doin' the sane come tomorrow," He added bitterly. Sollux rolled his eyes. "Give me a break, it's only a little scratch," the shorter boy shook his head as he grabbed his partner's jaw to angle the boy's face to where it was facing his. Sollux stared at Eridan's lips for longer than completely nessasary, do he decided to make up some comment so he could keep doing this. "See, it's hardly noticiable unless you're, like, staring at them." Sollux moved one of his hands from Eridan's jaw and to his chin, his thumb lightly grazing over his partner's bottom lip. Smooth and soft to split, then back to smooth and soft. Sollux liked the texture it created against his thumb, so he kept doing it. Around 7 seconds of this, Eridan mumbled something unintelligible. "What?" Sollux asked, now out of his previous trance. He moved his hands away from Eridan's face and began to feel a little embarrassed. "I said," the taller boy spoke up, "if you're going to kiss me, just do it already. I'm tired. I want to sleep." Sollux was now definitely embarrassed, his face was on fire. Kiss Eridan?! Eridan Ampora? Eridan Ampora with the soft and full, pink lips that would probably feel like heaven against his?! No! Never! Why would Eridan even say that? Now all he could think about was kissing. Jesus christ. "What?" He forced, looking up at Eridan with mock disgust that just looked like confusion. "I said-" Eridan started, swiftly cut off by Sollux. "Yeah, I heard you, I meant-" now Sollux was cut off. "It was a JOKE, but Jesus christ you're taking it so seriously maybe you should just ki-" wow welcome to cut off town, population: them. "Would you shut up about kissing already?!" Sollux fumed, bringing his left hand to his left temple, showing vast annoyance. After a spilt of silence, Eridan smirked as he said quietly, in a voice sweeter than the honey that colors Sollux's hair, "Make me. Please." Sollux's eyes shot up to his partner's, scowling now while also gritting his teeth. If Eridan asked again, especially in that tone of voice, Sollux wasn't so sure he'd be able to keep inadvertently saying no. "Look, just drop it. I'm going to sleep." Sollux said, not meeting his partner's eyes. Eridan waited a second before nodding and climbing directly back into Sollux's bed, laying directly in the middle.  
"What the fuck are you doing?"  
"Sleeping."  
"Eridan, you can't sleep in my bed."  
"Where the hell else am I supposed to sleep? The floor? Your dad's room?"  
That was a good point. Or, actually, maybe it wasn't, hell if Sollux knew, all he could focus on was the sleep he needed, so instead of fighting his peer from his bed, he just sighed heavily. "Scoot."  
"What?"  
"Move over. I need sleep too."  
After a moment of hesitation, the Ampora slid over to the far left side of Sollux's bed with an annoyed huff. Sollux rolled his eyes and climbed into the right side of the bed, far away from his partner. "This might not be too bad." Sollux thought, shifting until he was comfortable and staring up at the ceiling. As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Eridan spoke up, "I wouldn't have minded, yknow." Sollux turned his way and furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you on about now?" The Gemini mumbled, trying to get the sleep Eridan was granted through his little power nap. "I was saying I wouldn't have minded." Eridan said nonchalantly, shrugging. "I was joking, but I wouldn't have, like, left in a storm of fury or killed ya or anythin'." Sollux could only focus on how much he liked Eridan's voice instead of the words coming out of them, so he found himself again asking "What?" "Earlier. If you really did kiss me." Eridan said for the third time, partially regretting ever saying it in the first place. Sollux was silent for a moment. "Stop." "Stop what?" "Trying to weird me out. It won't work. I'm friends with Terezi, I've heard it all." He said, moving to lay back on his back. "Besides, the thought of kissing you doesn't weird me out." Sollux thought, or at least he thought he thought. "What?!" Eridan's eyes were practically popping out if his pretty face. Sollux didn't understand why. "I said stop trying to weird me out." He explained, confused as to why Eridan was now grinning and practically jumping up and down. "After that." "Terez-" "After that." Sollux furrowed his eyebrows. He didn't say anything after that, did he? "What did I say?" "The thought of kissin' me doesn't weird you out." Eridan said, watching Sollux to gauge if this statement was true or not. If it was, though, it would be the nicest thing anyone had ever said about him. Maybe that was sad and pathetic, but that's not the focus here. Sollux immediately looked over at him with a face of horror. This is why we watch what we say after 12am, ladies and gentlemen, because now he had to think of a way to play this down. He couldn't think of a way to play this down. "I-" He tried and failed to form a sentence. Fuck, what did he get himself into this time? "Kiss me." Eridan said, his heart hammering away. "Stop with the jokes already, Eridan." Sollux could barely say, relatively breathless. "I'm not joking." He said with a shrug. Sollux looked back to Eridan who looked painstakingly hopeful, until he realized Sollux was looking at him, then he averted his eyes. "C'mon, it'd be horribly anticlimactic if ya didn't kiss me at this point. Just do it to spite me." Maybe Sollux should just kiss him. No one else would have to know, it would be a secret between only them and the spiders in the walls. Just as Eridan was saying "Forget about i-", Sollux rolled over to him and hovered inches from his face. Eridan never looked so scared in his life, which Sollux took as an indication of a bad thing. They stayed like that for 2 beats of silence before Sollux started to roll away, causing Eridan to grab his wrist, which made Sollux look at him with a confused expression. The Ampora scrambled to sit, Sollux following suit. "Well?" Eridan questioned. "Don't back out now." He said quietly, encouraging Sollux to kiss him already. Sollux did just that. He leaned forward, heart pounding away, and he softly kissed Eridan Ampora, shrapnel from the explosion dusting his cheeks. The spiders in the walls cheered as Eridan kissed back and clasped his hands behind the gemini's neck. Eridan pulled back a few seconds after, lips still less than an inch apart from Sollux's, causing them to brush against eachother as he mumbled "This isn't real." Sollux pecked the split lip and rested a hand on Eridan's jaw. "Yes it is." Eridan pulled further back, looking into Sollux's eyes with the slyest smile ever. "So?" Eridan pecked Sollux's lips again, "Was it everythin' ya ever dreamed of?" He said in an exaggerated sing song voice. "Oh, give me a break." He laughed, collapsing onto his side of the bed. "And gp to bed." Then they realized that Sollux only had one pillow, and that Eridan had it on his side. The two decided to make an attempt to share the pillow. This agreement forced the two closer, as it was a relatively small pillow.  
So close, in fact, Eridan could smell the sweet aroma of honey scented shampoo radiating from the blonde, who was lying on his side and was turned in Eridan's direction, causing stray, longer pieces of hair to tickle the Ampora's forehead. So close Sollux was afraid Eridan might hear the sudden onslaught of banging against his chest as he slyly gazed down through lidded eyes at his chemistry partner. So close Eridan and Sollux both simultaneously wished to be closer, but wouldn't dare move a muscle in the right direction in fear of the other moving further away. So nothing moved aside from tensions, which were quickly rising as they were both pretending they didn't notice.  
At 2:25am, Sollux Captor gave in. He inched just a little further left, leaving less than an inch between their heads on the shared pillow. He closed his eyes just in case Eridan were to look up at him and realize he was moving closer to him on purpose. Eridan, however, did not close his eyes as he moved just a smidge right, accidentally granting contact through Eridan's shoulder and Sollux's chest. This accident was 100 percent an accident and you have no right to assume anything different.  
You do, however, have the right to assume that the warm, tingly sensation spreading through the two boys was enough to guarantee Sollux's arms just somehow finding their way around Eridan's waist. You also have the right to assume that Eridan only wanted to further the shared feeling of euphoria as he cuddled up to Sollux, nuzzling his head into the Gemini's chest and tangling their legs together. You can assume that Sollux smiled to himself when Eridan's auburn hair tickled the underside of his chin, and without thinking, pressed a kiss to the top of the Aquarius' head.  
Eridan just snuggled closer and sighed. He mumbled something about wishing morning would never come and that was the last thing Sollux heard before going to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updating in a while! Life and stuff, y'know. Anyway, this is probably the 2nd to last installation of this fic, so what should I write next? Any rare AU's you're dying for more fanfiction of? Any good prompts? Let me know!


	6. Chapter 6

At exactly 6:45am, Sollux's, Mituna's, and Mr. Captor's alarms bleated an unbearably loud noise akin to a kookaburra screaming directly into your ear -maybe even pecking at your earlobes if it's feeling frisky- in unison. Perhaps the kookaburra just thought you were a beautiful bird worthy of it's affection so it wanted to lovingly wake you up by violently pecking your ear while shrieking into the void that all life is meaningless beside your ear. Ah, love.  
Sollux reached around Eridan to smash the snooze button. Eridan hastily got out of bed and started looking around for his backpack. Once he located it, he made sure it had the flash drive and all of his notes back in place. "There." He said under his breath, shortly followed by a "Fuck!" .  
He turned his attention to the busy bee behind him, who was already putting on his shoes. "Sol, I have a problem." he stated vaguely.  
"What is it?" Mr. Honey Hair asked, pausing for a moment to look at the Aquarius.  
"Okay, so you know how I was supposed t' go home yesterday?"  
"Yeah? What, are your parents going to be mad?"  
"Uh, no, they probably won't care. My problem is that I didn't think I was gonna stay over, so I didn't pack for this mornin'. Like, at all."  
"Ah," Sollux nodded a little, "So you don't have clothes or anything?"  
"No. Just notes an' stuff." He shook his head, chastising himself mentally. "I could probably go by my house, but I'd need a ride and I'm not sure if any a you guys can drive this early." Eridan's permit hours were from 7am to 7:30pm, so he couldn't drive himself. Sollux had a full driver's licence, which allowed him to drive any time he damn well pleased, but he knew the trip would cause him to be late, which was something he couldn't afford being since he already missed four coding club meetings this semester. Yeah, so that was a bit dorky, but he enjoyed coding and it counted as an extracurricular, so he went.  
"Are you okay with just," he paused before the proposition, making sure he worded this properly. "Like, I don't know, just borrowing one of my T-Shirts? We don't really have time for anything extra. I can't be late."  
Eridan Ampora couldn't believe he let himself be so dumb. Who doesn't pack for just in case?! From now on, he vowed to pack just in case. "If it's not too much trouble, I guess it would be okay." Sollux promptly tossed him a Blink-182 band shirt. First literally kissing and then sharing shirts. They were on a roll. "Thankfully, I wore jeans, so I'm assumin' no one's gonna notice if I wear these two days in a row."  
"No one notices when I do it." Sollux shrugged, turning to leave so Eridan could get dressed and he could brush his teeth. Speaking of which, Captor assumed Eridan didn't pack a toothbrush, so he looked around the cabinets and shelfs in his bathroom to locate an extra one. He found a pack of three that hadn't been opened within a few minutes. "Score."  
Eridan had Sollux's band shirt and shoes donned before 6:53am, which is what time he left Sollux's room. "Sol?" He called down the hall, quickly answered a few seconds later with a call of "In here." from the bathroom.  
Eridan followed the voice and ended up in the doorway. "Do you have a-" Sollux promptly turned around and shoved one of the previously found toothbrushes into Eridan's hands. "I found extras." He said, looking rather proud of himself, causing Eridan smirk a little. "I was gonna ask for a hairbrush, but thank you either way." It was just now that Sollux noticed how adorable the way Eridan said "either" was. He didn't say it like "E-thur", like everyone else Sollux knew, but rather "Eye-thur" and it was endearing.  
"Well I have one of those too, but we should probably check one box at a time." Sollux said, turning to the sink and putting some toothpaste on his brush. It was just now that Eridan realized how cute Sollux's odd sayings were. They usually sounded made up, which was endearing. Eridan joined Solux at the sink and they both brushed their teeth until 6:58am. Sollux never brushed his hair, and honestly he wasn't planning on starting today, so he gave Eridan the hairbrush and ran his hands through his hair until he was okay with it. When he was, he went to his room to grab his and Eridan's backpacks. He set them by the front door and waited there for Eridan. He briefly considered just taking the school bus, since him driving Eridan to school would probably cause a few to spectate and talk, but then he noted that people would probably spectate and talk anyway since Eridan was wearing a Blink-182 shirt. Eridan didn't listen to Blink-182, but it was Sollux's favorite band, and the shirt he let Eridan borrow was kinda his favorite shirt that he kinda wore all the time and yeah he kinda chose that one on purpose. Whoops?  
"Okay, ready." Eridan said as he came around the corner. Somehow he was able to turn the mess he woke up with into something presentable within two minutes. Unbelievable.  
Sollux tossed the Aquarius his backpack and grabbed his keys off the ring beside the door. The sunlight was bright enough to be blinding, causing birds and other airborne animals to beg for mercy as it beat down, laughing psychotically. "Fuck" Sollux mumbled, walking to his car as he saw Latula pull up. She picked up Mituna every morning, which Sollux thought was pretty sweet. He attempted a halfhearted wave which she returned.  
Eridan sat in passenger and noticed the clock on the dashboard reflected 7:12am, which meant they didn't have to be at school for another 33 minutes. He knew Sollux lived close to the school, so he cast a confused look towards the driver. "Sol, why do ya get up so early? We're gonna have tons a free time before first period starts."  
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. I actually have coding club before school on Wednesdays and Fridays." He said with a shrug. He assumed Eridan wouldn't tease him about it since he did Theater after school, which Sollux thought was way dorkier. I mean, who gives up their afternoons to school?  
They pulled into the lot about 3 minutes late, which turned into 4 as Eridan kissed all over Sollux's face after he said "Bye, love you, see you later." After he made his way to the school, Sollux worked on basic codes and continued to smile to himself for the 25 minute span. Eridan went to the Chemistry lab first thing, turning in the flash drive so they'd get their grade back by the end of the day. He then made his way to the cafeteria and was surprised at the sheer lack of students when he arrived. Glancing around, he found Karkat Vantas, sitting in the back of the lunchroom with the blind girl who famously got kicked out of Chemistry last semester for actually drinking the concoction they were making. She was thought of as a legend for that first week by most the student body, and she'd been riding that wave ever since. Eridan still couldn't remember her name, though, which made him cross his fingers and hope she didn't know his either. "Hey guys." He said as he sat down across from Karkat, who looked up from his romance novel with the cover taken off of it. "Hello!" The girl said and waved enthusiastically.  
"You're here early." The shorter teen noted, raising an eyebrow as he slipped his bookmark between pages and shut his book. Eridan shrugged and decided he'd play it off as no big deal so his friend wouldn't question him further. "I woke up early. Plus Cro was being insufferable as usual, so I didn't really wanna stick around." Karkat considered this for a moment and, presumably, bought it, because he then turned to the girl and started up a conversation about math homework, which was apparently something he was very concerned about. Eridan told him he should join the debate team, but Karkat didn't seem to hear him thanks to being so caught up in his rant.  
20 minutes later, the cafeteria was filled to it's usual capacity. A few more kids joined at the table, but none of them talked to Eridan, which was fine with him because he didn't really know any of them. Besides, he was a little too distracted to have a conversation, he was still thinking about midnight kisses and early morning confessions of love.  
The bell rang suddenly and one minute early, jarring Eridan from his thoughts. Karkat gestured for Eridan to follow him and the girl, finally bringing his rant to an end as they left the cafeteria, Eridan was very thankful for this since they shared the same first period and didn't really want to endure an extra hour of that. Now he was talking about some essay that Terezi, which was apparently the girl's name, forgot to write.  
"You can't just forget to write your essays, Terezi, we had two weeks! You're going to fail if you don't do the writing."  
"Okay, mom, I promise I'll make it up." She said in a way that told Eridan she most definitely wasn't even going to attempt it. "And I'll do all my chores, too."  
"Yeah, okay smartass, keep joking. It won't be funny when you're held back, though." Karkat said with an annoyed huff. He then turned his attention to Eridan. He opened his mouth to say something but then his eyes got caught on the band shirt. "Oh my fucking god." He said after a moment, looking up at the Ampora with complete incredulously.  
Eridan furrowed his eyebrows, not putting two and two together since he had honestly forgot he was wearing Sollux's shirt. "What?" He and Terezi asked in unison.  
Karkat glanced at Terezi a second before turning back to Eridan. "He's wearing Sollux's shirt." Total smugness settled over Karkat's features, complete with a shitty grin. "Actually, no, he's wearing Sollux's FAVORITE shirt. The ugly Blink-182 one."  
"No I'm not." Eridan shook his head quickly. "This is my shirt, thank you very much." he lied, and pretty unconvincingly at that.  
"Oh, it is, is it? You listen to Blink-182? Since when?" Karkat actually laughed a little at the thought, since he knew Eridan only listened to shitty underground stuff and legitimately thought Eridan Ampora listening to Blink was pretty damn funny.  
"Yes. I do, Kar. Fuck off." He rolled his eyes to feign annoyance.  
"Name three of their songs. Actually, you know what, just name one."  
Eridan couldn't do that. "Whatever, Kar. I don't have t' prove myself to you."  
"HA!" That sent Karkat into ultimate smugness. The smugness was over 9000. "I so called it! I called it in eighth grade!" Terezi was snickering away beside him. Eridan wanted to shoot her a look that said "don't encourage him" but, well, y'know.  
Eridan's face was super warm and he took a moment to thank any deities that were listening for Sollux not being in his first period.  
"Strider owes me 10 bucks!" Vantas exclaimed. "Wait, what happened to your lip?! Strider owes me 20!" Eridan knew it would be a long day.

Eridan sighed under his breath, sitting in his usual spot by the window in his last period class. He was unreasonably happy when he noticed the board read "SIT WITH YOUR PARTNERS" and even more unreasonably happy to see Sollux walk through the door a lot earlier than he usually did, of course Eridan hid his excitement well.  
Sollux sat down in the seat beside Eridan without looking at the board, which made the Aquarius' happiness levels a lot higher.  
Project results were passed back to those who turned it in early, everyone else would get theirs on Monday. Their teacher explained that the assignment could be redone if students weren't happy with their grades, but the second time would only add half credit to the original grade.  
Sollux and Eridan got a C, an 84% to be exact, so Eridan was obviously confused when Sollux insisted that this was a really bad grade.  
"What are you talkin' about? It's basically a B." He furrowed his eyebrows and gave his best "oh my god you have got to be fucking kidding me" face.  
"No no no, Eridan, this is an awful grade. We have to redo it."  
He was about to protest, but then it clicked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> annnnd roll credits!


End file.
